Re:The “Only” Coke Machine on the Internet (1998)
by avuserow on Tuesday September 08, 2015 @04:05PM
(#10187907)
The only time we exploded cans was by freezing or loading incorrectly. Occasionally we had the solenoids fail to fire, but that was solved easily by sshing into the soda machine and asking it to vend again.
When I was there, the machine controlling the soda machine was a Linux box running some old Debian with a 2.4 kernel, on VIA or some non-Intel/AMD x86 processor, booting from iSCSI. Thankfully, it was upgraded when the machine was rebuilt. How much of this was around in your time there?
Nice work with it. Definitely a staple of the ACM office :)
edit: also, it survived a building move, so that's pretty awesome.
Re:The “Only” Coke Machine on the Internet (1998)
by Qworg on Tuesday September 08, 2015 @04:27PM
(#10188037)
We had some random x86, running Linux, in there on a full sized motherboard. It lived in between the front face and the actual refrigeration compartment. We also had a fun little perfboard of 120V relays inside of a clear plastic case we built - the most dangerous part of the machine (which melted down at least once in the first build).
Man, memories. =)
Re:The “Only” Coke Machine on the Internet (1998)
by klange on Tuesday September 08, 2015 @07:47PM
(#10188859)
When avuserow says "upgraded" he means we "replaced it with a not-much-newer HP desktop running Ubuntu", so it's still a random x86, running Linux, on a full-sized motherboard. It lives outside the case these days, though.
Yeah, we had to load gently, and the thermocouple probably needed to be replaced (if you were exploding cans). The coldest soda in the university though. =)
Yes - it was meant for steel cans. The mechanism at the bottom to output cans was literally an open pair of scissors driven by a giant 120V solenoid.